Vestibular disorders and audiology.

The sensitivity of the vestibular system to acoustic stimulation is well established. Sound-evoked vestibular symptoms in humans were first described by Tullio in 1929. In some lower vertebrates such as amphibians and fish, the saccule is the organ of hearing (Popper, Platt, & Saidal, 1982; Moffat & Capranica, 1976).

Although the cochlea has replaced the saccule as the primary organ of hearing in mammals, there is evidence that the mammalian saccule remains responsive to sound. Vestibular afferent nerve fibers have been found to be acoustically responsive in the squirrel ...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.